The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-04-10
ONE OF THE WOMAN QUESTIONS.
An Attempt to Solve the Problem of Domestic
Service in an Industrial School for Girls.

Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal.
New York April An Western city not a
thousand miles removed from the borders of In z
diana, is club of ladies, who meet on alternate
weeks to study different literary subjects clos
ing the afternoons work with discussion of cur
rent topics In abiding to these discussions,
member once jestinely remarked, mo matter
what subject is introduced we always drift off
to the woman question" Now it is popularity
supposed that 1.-THE woman question" means
either woman suffrage. or the higher
NOT require long examination to see
that the suffrage question is taking
of itself. and that higher education of
woman. like the newspaper. has come to stay
while thousand and one other subjects affect
ing the interests Of women are demanding and
receiving the attention of thoughtful minds.
Unusual prominence has of late been given in
all our periodical literature to the question of
domestic service We are asking, "Why do
American women dislike domestic service; how
can we secure better trained servants: why, in
spite OF its average poor quality, are the wages
paid for homework better than those given
women for almost every other kind of work;
why does the average girl, when she marries,
know so little of the household duties required
Of her9 Why, when much has been done to
secure for women an entrance into new occupa-
tons and professions. has so little been done to
improve her work in those fields which have al
ways heen considered legitimately hers? Why
does pnilanthropic work even now, notwi,h-
standing the efforts of associations of organized
charity ifco1f vii tha
ton of pauperism and with systematic
efforts to elevate the homes of the poor2
Why is reason divorced from sent-
ment in so many charitable endeavorsw
All these questions, multiplied by hundred.
force themselves the minds of those who are
conseientiousy and earnestly attempting to help
the great mass of women in their daily lives
Manyof them are as yet unanswered but some
thing in the air tells US that the spirit of inquiry
and effort is abroad, and must, in time, prod
fruit. There are numerous cooking schools that
spring up spasmodically. but seldom have more
than epnemerai existence. A few of our
fashionable boarding schools offer instruction in
the various branches of domestic economy. 1t is
quite in vogue for sewing schools TO be attached
to church organizations. Charity schools in our
large cities provide industrial training for girls
The Young Womsn's Christian Association has
turned its attention to the subject and forms
classes where at a reasonable rate, girls can
learn dress making and cooking. But all this is
scarcely an entering wedge. The great questions
of how to secure in all places. large and small,
well-trained domestic servants, OF af-
fordng young housekeepers the op-
portunty OF supplying their lack of
experience by systematic instruction, of
teaching the lower classes the ordinary house
hold virtues. of SO dignifying manual labor that
a woman who chooses to engage in it need not
a,o11 a.
unanswered. 1t is. however. of the greatest in
terest to know what has been done in this direc.
ton in our larger cities. and what the apparent
result has been. New York leads in the estab-
Philadelphia in the introduction of sewing into
the public schools and Boston in its work in
cooking schools The work done in each has it's
own peculiar features, and contributes some
thing towards the general fund of experience.
The home Of the kitchen garden in New York
is at the Wilson Industrial School for Girls, 125
st. Marks Place. The visitor who starts in
quest of it from the upper part of the city,
armed with map and guide book. and fully con.
vinced that she knows the way, finds herself at
last down town." in an open square into which
! empty. in dismal confusion, such a number Of
streets, avenues, courts and places as must oc-
caeionally strike terror into the heart of q ma
tive New Yorker. The elevated road over her
head and the street vendors who seem like toads
under her feet, add to the bewilderment ST.
Marks Place, which is there the map. dsap-
pears III Tue reality duO atLcr spending no small
| amount of time and energy vainly searching
| for policeman, the average woman begins to
! wonder If she Is as much consumed by zeal for
| the cause as she had imagined A postman, how
| ever knows that the name is given to one block
! of Eighth street. Alas! the numbers do not run
| above 80, and there is q vague impression tina {
the guide book says that many streets in the an
| nexed districts bear the same names as those on
| the island. Visions of long ride in the opposite
| direction come up. when q policeman appears
| who knows that the name is sometimes given to
| another block on Eighth street, and with re-
| newed courage she goes on her way until No. l25
| Eighth street proves to be the long sought for
goal.
| The school is in section of the city inhabited
| almost exclusively by Germans, and has been
! supported as charity school for nearly thirty
five years. 1t has an average attendance of
about two hundred girls who come from families
| too poor to send their children to the public
| schools. The girls are given dinner, and are
| able TO earn part of their clothing and to make
| 1t in school: thus reducing the expenses of the
| parents. They are given regular instruction in
| the ordinary school branches, but it is in the
| fact that the school has attempted to solve the
! question of giving education to girls in domestic
affairs that its chief interest lies A few years
ago bliss Emily Huntington the lady in charge
OF the school, conceived the idea of APPLYING the
principles of the kindergarten to training in
| household duties with the thought of changing
into knowledge that ignorance which lies at the
bottom OF so much of the misery of the poor
! If household duties could be made attractive in
stead of irksome, might not the homes of
the poor be made brighter, their moral tone
elevated, labor dienifed. and girls be more
ready, through the knowledge obtained, to sup
/, p~rt themselves by manual labor2 The attempt
was at least worth making, and with these ends
in view. after many experiments. the kitchen
garden and the cooking garden we're evolved
| What are they2 A glance about the building
! will help 70 answer the question. It is a plain
| brick structure, four stories in height, fitted
up like an ordinary school building with
the addition of nursery where mothers
may leave their children by paying FIVE cents a
day, and two rooms used for the kitchen garden
and the sewing class. The one used for the
| kitchen garden is about the size of an ordinary
school-room, seating forty children. and has low
ceilings and bare floor. One corner is occupie d
by large deal table. covered neatly with white
ocloth. another has large closet containing all
the cooking utensils used; in the third is seen a
small cooking slowed. and in the fourth are the
chairs for visitors. The walls above
the wanscoting are covered with taste
full paper having dado illustrating the
House that Jack built" while in plain frames
are few fine etchings illustrating the work of
the kitchen garden. Back of the stove are the
brightest of stove belongings. while all around
the room at the top of the wainscoting hang
small children's b-ooms ornamented with brigh,
ribbons. There is nothing about the place
which savors Of cant, is too often the case in
charitable institutions, nor anything thai
Al